Is Time Blocking The Only Way To Productivity? Are There Different Ways For Different Personality Types?

I have found a new way to operate that's more effective for me than time blocking.

Is time blocking the only way to productivity? Are there different ways for different personality types? I've been using time blocking for years, it's a super powerful tool to achieve a high level of productivity - but what I have found is that it started to fail me in certain ways. With the help of a productivity coach I have found a new way to operate that's more effective for me than time blocking.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠? Time blocking is organizing your calendar to assign a very specific task for a specific time block every single day, and execute only that task in that block of time. Many times it’s done static, “...everyday at 9am I do this, everyday at 10am I do this, everyday at 11am it’s this, etc…” But what started to happen was appointments would come in and I’d have gaps of time in the rest of my day where I could execute tasks, but I did not because it was not where my blocks were.

𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. It's a little bit different than time blocking. You look at the big picture and get very clear on what you want to accomplish in a specific time frame - say in a week, a quarter, a year. Whatever the time frame you want to execute within.

What are the things you need to get done this week to move me towards your goal? Maybe you’re working towards more sales, a bigger business, better lifestyle - or maybe it’s health and wellness. Whatever it is, figure out where those things fit in and how many times a week you need to fit them in, and then put those things into those days.

Take a look at your calendar the day before and sort out what time everything for that day fits best. Maybe something fits best at 9am, another at 1:00, something else at 2:00. Maybe you have to get up early and get something done at 5am because that’s where it fits that day. It’s FLEXIBLE because EVERYDAY IS DIFFERENT. I used to miss one of my blocks of the day and I’d end up throwing the whole day out, because there was no flexibility to it. (Also my all or nothing personality default!)

What happens as a result is the reason I was able to be sweaty in the middle of the work day. I had a very busy morning but felt like I needed to workout. I wanted to go for a run but I had a time block to do something else. Because I'm flexible, I'm accountable, and that block is not going to be off my calendar today, I saw that I had time at 3:00 that was empty and simply moved that block and the productivity is still there. It's still getting done. It's flexible, but I'm accountable that it gets done today. And it works. I've been doing this for a few weeks. It's been working wonders better for me than time blocking.

Things change with our busy lifestyles between business, work, kids and always running in different directions. The flexibility helps a lot.

Our agents work through these things one by one so if you’d like to have a conversation about that we’re always here to do so! Have a great day and a great week. See you guys later.